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Human Rights and HIV/AIDSAlthough male sexworkers are oftenmore aware oftheir vulnerabilitiesto HIV and STIsthan their peers,the fact that theyare an extremelymarginalisedgroup... makes itextremely difficultfor them to protectthemselves.In addition to the existing cultural valueplaced on sexual inexperience in women,it has been seen that the HIV epidemiccan prompt older men to seek everyounger partners who they believe will beless sexually experienced and thereforeless likely to be infected by HIV. 21 Thismakes young women more vulnerable tobeing infected by older men with widersexual experience. 224.3.1 Sexuality andvulnerabilities: men who havesex with menSex between men is common withinSouth Asia, as it is in other societies.However, such sex is generally not viewedas ‘homosexual’ and those men engagingin it are rarely part of any ‘gay’community. 23 Moreover, such activitiesare taboo and not widely talked about, andare also officially outlawed in most SouthAsian countries, often by old Britishcolonial laws that have been left in place.Despite this, it appears that in manycountries young men have their earlysexual experiences with other young menand that many go on to continuedbisexual activity in later life. For example,50 per cent of male university studentsinterviewed in Sri Lanka reported thattheir first sexual experience had been withanother man. 24 While male bisexualitycannot be understood simply as aresponse to men’s lack of access towomen, it is likely that restrictions oncontact between men and women inmany South Asian cultures do play a partin the widespread nature of sex betweenmen as an alternative means of sexualexpression.A study conducted in the Bangladeshicapital of Dhaka 25 found that the rights ofmen who have sex with men, includingmale sex workers, were being violated withincreasing frequency. The study went onto establish that such violations affectedtheir self-esteem, negotiating power, andultimately increased their vulnerability toHIV/AIDS. For men, selling sex is bothhighly stigmatised and illegal in most ofSouth Asia. Although male sex workers areoften more aware of their vulnerabilitiesto HIV and STIs than their peers, the factthat they are an extremely marginalisedgroup, and are forced to operate incircumstances over which they have verylittle control, makes it extremely difficultfor them to protect themselves. It isparticularly difficult for young men tonegotiate safer sex with older and morepowerful male partners, and when analsex is practised, the unavailability ofcondoms and lubricants can exacerbatethe vulnerabilities that they face.4.3.2 Mobile populationsMigration is a survival strategy for manyindividuals in search of work within SouthAsia. The region is currently undergoingmajor macro economic changes as partof the process of globalisation, which hasopened up many avenues for large-scalelabour mobility. Poverty, absence ofadequate or appropriate livelihoodoptions, depleting rural employmentopportunities, caste and gender-basedexploitation and oppression, violenceand conflict, the hope of finding betteropportunities elsewhere and the searchfor a better life are among the key factorsthat make people move in search oflivelihoods. Migration patterns from theregion include internal and inter-countrymobility, as well as overseas migration.The migration trends depend upon socioeconomicand geographical factorsas well as tradition/past migrationexperiences in the source community,availability of local livelihood options andproximity to metropolitan cities.According to figures from the Bureau ofManpower and Employment andTraining of Bangladesh, the average82Regional Human Development ReportHIV/AIDS and Development in South Asia 2003